Turkiye’s Erdogan proposes vote on women’s right to wear Islamic headscarf
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkiye, on Saturday suggested putting the issue to a national vote to ensure that women have the freedom to cover their heads in public settings like schools and colleges.
For devout Muslim Erdogan, the issue is especially significant because in 2013, his Islamic-rooted government party abolished a long-standing restriction on the hijab’s use in public settings.
Before the general elections in 2023, which are expected to be one of the most significant threats to Erdogan’s two-decade rule of Turkey, the headscarf issue has dominated political discourse in recent months.
Erdogan frequently cites the lifting of the ban as evidence of how his party stands up for devoted Muslim Turks in opposition to the secular parties in power prior to the entrance of his party in Turkiye in 2002.
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“If you have the courage, come, let’s put this issue to a referendum… Let the nation make the decision,” Erdogan said in remarks aimed at main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Kilicdaroglu is the leader of the secular CHP, a group founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the architect of the secular contemporary Turkish republic.
To allay concerns that his party will revive the ban, the CHP leader put out a law guaranteeing the right to wear a headscarf.
In the 1990s, arguments centred on the headscarf, but no party in Turkiye’s Muslim-majority government currently suggests a ban.
“We had made mistakes in the past regarding the headscarf,” Kilicdaroglu admitted earlier this month. “It’s time to leave that issue behind us.”
According to experts, Kilicdaroglu wants to convince religious voters that there is nothing to fear from supporting his secular party the following year.
Erdogan responded by suggesting a constitutional amendment that would “shortly” be submitted for ratification to the parliament, where his party and his nationalist alliance partner enjoy a slim majority.
(With inputs from agencies)
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